Influence of grape seed oil into recycled polypropylene (PP) thermo-oxidative degradation

ABSTRACT The antioxidant potential of grape seed oil (OSU) was evaluated after addition into recycled polypropylene (PP rec.). OSU was incorporated into PP rec. in variable contents of 0.5, 1.0 and 1.5 phr (per hundred resin). The processing was carried out in a twin-screw extruder and the different samples, after being granulated, were submitted to thermo-oxidative degradation by thermogravimetry (TGA). Experimental data were treated using an empirical methodology that combined kinetic models, present in the literature, and statistical tools such as analysis of variance (ANOVA). The results of thermo-oxidative degradation kinetics allowed us to conclude that OSU shows effective antioxidant activity only when the added content does not exceed 0.5 phr and low heating rates (3 °C/min) are considered.